


The Accident

by notjustmom



Series: Ironstrange [4]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Established Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, M/M, scenes after Strange's accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-03 02:03:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17275016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: These scenes take place after Strange's car accident, which in this verse takes place a few months after Stark returns from Afghanistan. Again, mostly meta for me, and this is set in the same verse as Turkey Day, Peter's 16th Birthday, Christmas and A New Year, would take place a few months after A New Year...





	1. Chapter 1

“Sir.”

“Hmmm?”

“I am afraid -”

Tony froze, turned off the acetylene torch he was using, then pushed his goggles into his hair. “Jarvis?”

“Dr. Strange never arrived at the conference he was supposed to speak to tonight.”

“Jarvis.” Tony’s voice had turned to ice and the arc reactor felt heavy in his chest.

“I’m picking up his signal, it indicates his car is in a body of water. I don’t detect any life signs, Sir.”

“Shit. Shit. Shit. I knew I should have gone with him.”

“Sir -”

“No.”

Tony froze as his phone vibrated on his desk, he stabbed at it with his finger and nearly shattered the screen. “Speak.”

“Tony. It’s Christine Palmer.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s not good. They just got him out of the car, they’re bringing him by helicopter. If he -”

“You mean when, don’t you, Dr. Palmer?”

“When he regains consciousness -”

“Not his hands. Christine. Please?”

“The likelihood of nerve damage -”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Tony.”

“He’s gonna be fine, Christine. It’s Stephen, he’s arrogant enough to believe the world will end without his continued presence in it, you, of all people know that -” He has to be fine. “I’ll be there in five minutes, if he, if you see him, tell him -” He glared down at the ring on his finger that Stephen had put there, less than a month earlier, twenty-three days earlier to be exact.

 

He had been out testing another prototype, but a surprise rainstorm had cut his test flight short, and he returned to find Stephen dressed as he did when he was receiving yet another award, but it was eleven in the morning, and he should have been at work.

“Stephen?”

“You’re back sooner than I planned for, there's a new suit for you, go change, please, Tony.”

“It’s pouring out -” Tony spluttered, then he saw the candles and someone he assumed was a minister of some denomination and he nodded, then turned and walked up to their bedroom and changed, then walked back downstairs to hear his favorite piece of music playing -

 

“Sir.”

Tony flinched at Jarvis’s voice and he muttered, “yeah. I’m going, keep an eye on things, Jarvis - not sure when I’ll be home.”

“Don’t I always, Sir?”

Tony managed half a grin and shook his head. “Do I need to tone down the sass level in your software again?”

“Sir.”

“Carry on, Jarvis.”

“The doctor will be -”

“Yes, I know, he will be fine, because he has to be, doesn’t he?”

 

“Christine.”

“Tony.” She looked into the dark brown eyes and wondered how he was still standing. She took him gently by the elbow and steered him to a couch in the waiting room. “It’s going to take hours -”

“Did you see him?”

She nodded. “I wish I had better news, there’s a lot of internal bleeding, and his face - there might be damage to his sight, shit. I’m sorry, Tony; if he hadn’t been wearing his seat belt, he wouldn’t have survived the fall from the road -”

Tony snorted. “I wouldn’t let him leave until I saw him buckle it. He thinks -”

“I honestly don’t know how, but he had regained consciousness when they landed. You guys weren’t fighting were you?”

“No. Why?”

“He knew I was there and he managed to say, 'tell Tony sorry,' before he passed out again."

“Drama queen, always has to have the last word.” Tony closed his eyes as he felt the panic begin to take over, and took a deep breath, trying to focus on the reason he was here. “Odds.”

“Hmm?”

“Tell me the odds, numbers I can deal with.”

Christine shook her head, and took his hand in hers. “I don’t play odds. As you said, he’s an arrogant arse, if anyone can get through this, it would be him, but - it’s not going to be easy.”

“When is anything ever easy with us, Christine?” Tony squeezed her hand, then opened his eyes and saw the unusual level of stress in her body language. “You should be in there with him.”

“No, I can’t, I’m too close. Nick is the best we have - Stephen, of course, would say otherwise, but as brilliant as he is - he can’t fix himself. He’s going to need you, Tony, in ways he’s going to hate -” She flinched as her pager went off.

“Stephen?”

She nodded crisply at him, and held his hand tighter. “Breathe, Tony. Just breathe. I’m not going anywhere.”

Eleven hours later, Nick walked over to them, Christine had fallen asleep next to Tony, while Tony was on his ninth cup of coffee. He made to get to his feet, but Nick shook his head. “He made it through the surgery. I have to warn you, it’s going to take time for him to come out of the anaesthesia, and he won’t be happy when he does. He’s going to be in a lot of pain, and he won’t like what we had to do -”

“His hands.”

“We missed the window when we could have done anything to save his hands when he was in the water. He will barely be able to dress himself, let alone hold a scalpel -”

“I need to be with him.”

Nick nodded. “He looks worse than it actually is, at least externally, I think his sight will be okay, we took the precaution of bandaging both eyes, it’s standard -”

“-operating procedure. What else?”

“We caught all the bleeders, he will recover fully except -”

“For the one thing he cares about.”

Christine sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. “Tony. He has you.”

Tony got to his feet and turned to face her. “I guess we’ll see if I’m enough, won’t we?”

 

“Hey, Doc.” Tony spoke in a hush as he put down his phone and muted the news as he saw Stephen try to raise his hands to his face. “Don’t.”

“Tony?”

“Yeah, I’m here. You can’t see anything because your eyes are bandaged.”

“My hands?” Stephen’s normally deep voice was even deeper, and Tony could hear an edge of fear, in the anger that radiated through him.

“You were in the water for hours. I didn’t know until Jarvis took a call that you hadn’t arrived at the dinner, and then he located your signal -”

“My hands.”

“You were in surgery for eleven hours.”

“Stark.”

Tony had never lied to his friend, partner and husband in the years they had been together, over ten years now, and he wasn’t about to start now. “There are metal pins and plates holding them together, they went through the dashboard when you crashed…”

“I need to see.”

“Stephen.”

“Please, Tony.”

“Yeah.” Tony sighed and got to his feet, then laid a gentle hand on Stephen’s cheek and leaned down to kiss his forehead. He took a breath and held it until he had unwrapped the bandage from Stephen’s eyes then let it out slowly. “Listen to me.”

“Tony.”

“No. When I came back from Afghanistan, you could have left, I was a mess, no good to anyone, especially to you, but you stayed, and you married me, you idiot. You made promises to me, and I made the same vows to you, to stay by your side -”

“Tony, I need to see.”

Tony nodded and took his seat again and made himself watch his husband’s face go from shock to anger and finally disbelief.

“What did they do? Tony -”

“They saved your life, Stephen.”

“What good - what am I without - I have nothing if I can’t do the work.”

Tony froze for a moment, but said nothing and pressed the call button. He slowly got to his feet and kissed Stephen’s forehead again. “I’ll be in the hallway, if you need me. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Go home.”

“No. I won’t.”

“Tony. You hate hospitals.”

Tony offered him the most brilliant smile he could muster and nodded. “Yeah, but I love you more than I hate hospitals.”

Stephen nodded and regretted it. “Everything hurts, Tony.”

“I know. I’m so sorry, love.”

“Will you stay, please?”

Tony nodded and sat down in his chair. “Of course. Not going anywhere, Strange. Not going anywhere without you.”

 

Tony-

I can’t be here anymore. I shouldn’t expect you to give up your life to take care of me. I am releasing you from your vows, I have never felt so loved and cared for as I have over the last months, but I can’t, we can’t continue this way. One day you will come to resent my presence, and the love I see in your eyes every time I catch you looking at me, as if you are relieved and grateful that I am still here, will vanish. 

And I will deserve it. I don’t deserve what you are offering me. I can’t accept - I can’t be who I’ve become and make you witness it. I don’t want you to waste your life thinking that things will some day get better, and I don’t want you to resign yourself to this existence I’ve forced upon you.

You know I have tried, we have tried every single thing that can be done. I’ve heard of a place, I don’t even know if it’s real or not, but it’s my last chance to get my hands back, our lives back. I know you understand even as you would try to convince me to stay, that’s why I’m leaving without saying this to your face. You know logically it’s better this way, in the long run.

I hope you know you are the love of my life, the only person I’ve ever loved, will ever love, and if anyone could have saved me, it would have been you.

Yours, always and forever,

-S

 

Two years had passed since the day Stephen took nothing but the money he needed to get to Kamar-Taj and a small bag. He had left the note and his wedding band next to the coffee pot so it would be the first thing Tony saw when he walked into the kitchen. Tony burned the note after reading it once, and put the ring in the drawer of his worktable so he could see it each time he opened the drawer. He threw himself into designing and building Stark Tower, and survived the attack in New York with few visible scars, but those who knew him, knew he had essentially lost everything that had meant anything to him when Stephen walked out on him.

“Mr. Stark?” An unfamiliar voice asked; young, bubbly and efficient.

“Speaking.”

“Your husband -”

“My husband. What do you know about my husband? He isn’t -”

“He had made arrangements, three years ago - if a suitable situation -”

“Who is this - what kind of situation?”

“There is a young woman about to give birth-”

“Wait, just a minute. Now, I know for a fact that -”

The voice laughed. “No, Mr. Stark, she is giving her son up for adoption, she is about to give birth and you are the person we were to contact when -”

Tony sat down in his chair hard, or had at least intended to, but missed and ended up crashing to the workroom floor. “Wait. I’m - we’re -”

“If you come to Memorial as soon as possible, your son should be arriving any time now.”

“But -”

“He didn’t discuss this with you?” The softly patient voice went on.

“We had discussed the possibility - but -”

“Why don’t you come to the hospital and meet him, and go from there, it is a rather large file we have for your husband, he gave me very detailed instructions. He seems to have considered every eventuality.”

“Yeah. He -” Tony caught his breath and whispered, “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Thank you, Ms.?”

“Ms. Potts. Ms. Virginia Potts.”

“Well, Ms. Potts, thank you for your call.” Tony ended the call and slowly got to his feet. “Stephen, what the hell were you thinking? I can’t - hell. I wish I knew where you were.”

 

Three weeks later, Peter had finally fallen asleep on his shoulder when a ring of light appeared in front of him. “Great. Hallucinations, now?” His breath caught and his train of thought screeched to a halt as his husband, but not his husband, suddenly stood before him, took Peter into his arms, and left the room. Tony was still frozen to the same spot when Stephen walked back into the room and pulled Tony into his chest and held him tightly as he pressed a kiss into his hair. No words were spoken out loud, though somehow hundreds of apologies and words of forgiveness were shared without a single voice being used. Of course Tony had questions, but all he cared about was the fact that his husband was home. At that moment, nothing else mattered.


	2. Chapter 2

Stephen took Tony by both hands and walked backwards, his eyes never leaving Tony's face, as if afraid he'd disappear if he blinked or turned away, until they were safely in their bedroom. He opened his mouth to speak and Tony shook his head, and began to undress. Stephen shuddered at the obvious loss of weight, and the evidence of, what, exactly? The man in front of him had become a warrior in the time he had been gone, and he wondered, as he let his fingers travel lightly over the largest scar, a burn that covered his left shoulder, how much of the damage could be laid at his feet, because of his absence over the last two years. Tony rolled his eyes but stepped out of his sweats and tossed them aside, then stood in silence for a long moment, before he reached out and placed a hand over Stephen's chest and waited until he felt Stephen's heart beat in his fingertips.

"I -" Stephen finally began, and again Tony shook his head, then took a step forward, and let his head fall against Stephen's chest, his arms, stronger than Stephen remembered, wrapped around him hesitantly at first, then tightened, as if he finally accepted that the man in his arms was real, not a result of weeks of sleepless nights, not a hallucination, but flesh and blood. Stephen had been afraid to return, had considered spending the rest of his life wandering the world in hopes of making up for what he had done to the man who trembled against him, but he knew where he belonged, where he wanted to be, needed to be.

"What the hell are you wearing?"

Stephen snorted, and took a step back, as the cloak pulled away from his shoulders and floated over to a dark corner of the bedroom, then lifted his shirts over his head and let them fall to the floor, and closed his eyes, afraid of what he would see in his husband's eyes. He heard Tony draw in a shattered breath, and felt his strong, scarred fingers travel lightly over how time and practice had changed him over the last two years. He shivered as Tony found the pale reminders of the accident that had nearly ended his life, and the new scars from the battles he wasn't sure he would ever be able to explain clearly enough even if he were asked to. Then he felt the familiar sensation of Tony's hands resting on his hips, and his breath caught, as Tony pulled him closer, and he knew he was home, and somehow had been forgiven.

"I know there are things you need to tell me, and of course I want to know, but not until tomorrow, or in a couple of days, or next week. I can't tonight. Tonight, I just need you to hold me and not let me go, can you do that for me, just for tonight?"

Stephen nodded and lifted Tony into his arms, then finally kissed him, cautiously at first, then as Tony's hands pulled him closer, the kiss became the only thing that mattered to him, as he lost himself in the scents and sounds he thought he would never have again. He pulled back to catch his breath and found Tony grinning at him. "I've missed you, Doc."

"Yeah, Stark, I've missed you too. You need to sleep." He laid Tony carefully in their bed, then quickly undressed and climbed in next to him. He looked into the dark, sparkling eyes that were currently studying him, relearning him, searching for the old landmarks that identified him as the man he was before, and finally after a couple of minutes, Tony tucked himself against his chest, tangled their legs together, and after a moment was fast asleep.

As exhausted as Stephen should have been, and was, if he gave it serious consideration, he found he couldn't close his eyes. He spent hours listening to Tony fight his nightmares; they were new, at least new to him, not of Afghanistan, or of his accident, but of something darker, and understood he had battled against not just loneliness and heartbreak over the last two years, but against things and events even Tony, as brilliant as he was, was still trying to come to terms with. All he could do was hold on tighter and swear in silence that he would never leave him again.

He startled awake to find Tony gone, but could hear his voice over the baby monitor. "Morning, kiddo. Doc is home. Yeah, the one I've told you about. He's a bit different now, but then, so am I, I guess. It will be an adventure, getting to know each other again; yeah, like those stories I tell you. Doc doesn't know those stories yet, one day, we'll tell him. But not today. Today, we are going to see if Doc knows how to hold a baby, and we'll teach him how to change a diaper and give you a bottle, probably not as exciting as the last two years have been for him..." Stephen lost Tony's voice as he left the baby's nursery, and re-entered their bedroom. He blinked as he sat up and took in the image of his husband gently cradling their tiny son in his strong arms and wondered at how the universe conspired to get him to this moment.

"Stephen, this is Peter; Peter, this is Doc, your other father, and my very best friend. He had to be somewhere else for a while, but he's back now. For good." Tony looked away from Peter's face and saw the yes in Stephen's eyes, then carefully placed the baby into Stephen's arms, and kissed his forehead, then Stephen's. "I need coffee, and you two need to get acquainted. Don't worry, he's pretty chill for a newborn, doesn't like to sleep much, I think he's picked up on my bad habits already." Tony stood there for a moment as if frozen by the sight of something he wasn't sure he'd ever witness, then blinked and left the room, as if stung.

"Your dad, Peter, is the best, most remarkable person I've ever known. I'm sorry I missed your first weeks here with us, to be honest, I was afraid he wouldn't want me back. And then when I saw him, I remembered who he was, and knew he still loved me, had never stopped. I swear, Peter, I'll make it up to him, and to you." He pressed his nose into Peter's blond curls and choked back a sob, then he began to hum the song from their wedding:

 

"If the sky that we look upon  
Should tumble and fall  
Or the mountains should crumble to the sea  
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear  
Just as long as you stand, stand by me..."*

 

Downstairs in the kitchen, Tony leaned against the fridge, eyes closed tightly in an attempt to fight the tears that streamed down his face, as he listened to Stephen sing their son back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Stand By Me, written by Ben King, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephen learns about Iron Man after his return home.

Tony woke to Stephen running his fingers over the scars on his back, and tried to breathe normally, but found it impossible as Stephen pressed soft kisses on the worst of the damage.

"Stephen."

"Sorry. I'm -"

"Don't." Stephen drew back away from him and moved to the edge of the bed. "Shit. I just - I'm not used to you being home, and there are things you don't know." He watched Stephen freeze, then relax and finally shrug and lower his head. "Really? Don't be an idiot. It's nothing like that. You and the kid are the only two who could or would possibly want to live with me, you've already left me once, and the kid - well, he can't get out of the crib yet, or talk, so he can't call a cab -"

"Stop," Stephen growled out and ran his fingers through his hair.

Tony sighed and moved to sit behind Stephen and leaned against his back, then caught his breath as Stephen reached out for his hands and threaded their fingers together. "I'm sorry. I just - I honestly didn't expect you - I wasn't sure you would still be here. I would have understood if you had left."

"Your hands?" Tony asked carefully.

"They work, not well enough for me to go back to work, but that was never going to happen, we both knew that. They work well enough for me to be able to feel you again, enough so you don't have to -"

Tony wrapped his arms and legs around him and closed his eyes, as Stephen shook his head. "I saw all the scars, Tony. I know they weren't there before I left. I know you had been working on something after it was clear you couldn't fix, help me -"

Tony glanced over at the bedside table and saw Stephen's laptop sitting on it. "Please tell me you didn't google my name."

He laid his hands over Tony's, then closed his eyes and let out the breath he had been holding. "No. I thought about it, but I decided I should hear whatever it is from you. It's possible I might get the wrong impression from news reports, as the press wasn't always our biggest fan in the past."

"I felt, there was a reason. Had to be a reason why I was able to get out of the cave, and it wasn't so I could come home and design new missiles, or discover another new way to destroy the world. I -"

Stephen got up from the bed and turned to look at him. 

"Honestly, it's better if you see him, it - it's really an it. The other - well, me - no, it's not another, it - hell." Tony ran his fingers through his hair, dressed quickly in silence, then grabbed Stephen by the hand and walked him down to his workshop. "The press, being the morons they are have dubbed it, him, me, Iron Man - though it's not made of iron - it's really a titanium alloy -" He flipped the lights on and drew in a sharp breath as he heard Stephen swear under his breath. "I realized I could -"

"You could what?" Stephen asked quietly as he walked over to the suits of armor, and ran his fingers lightly over the deep gashes, scorch marks and dents, then poked an index finger through a "bullet hole?" He muttered to himself then stopped and waited for Tony to continue.

"I realized I could be better, do better, change myself, and I know it sounds corny, and ridiculous coming from me, but I - when this - happened to me, at first, I thought I was too broken, I was afraid for you to see - to know what had been taken from me. But when I got out of that cave, I understood the power I had, the power I could have, to be something honestly good for the first time in my life. And at first it was just an idea that I played with, while I was updating this thing." Tony tapped at the device in his chest and waited for Stephen to interrupt him, but he didn't, so he went on. "But on those nights I couldn't sleep - especially when you had your late nights at work, I started sketching things out, improving on the original design... I put it away when you had the accident, and focused on you, on trying to - and when you left, I had - I honestly had nothing left, but this - them."

"Tony-"

"And then I became... him, it. I had no reason to let anyone else take the risks I could, when I had nothing, no one at home."

"It's because of me," Stephen muttered to himself.

"Yes..." Stephen finally turned to face him. "And no. Damn, talk about narcissistic tendencies... Yes, because I needed to do something, something that had nothing to do with you, in case you chose to never come back. And I knew that was a real possibility. It was and you know it. And no, I really do not want to talk about that right now. I'm too tired and I don't really care, to be honest, is that too honest? Probably. But I've learned, the hard way to always say precisely what I mean. I chose to become it, him, Iron Man, because it was easier than being me. If I were him, then I could try to do the right thing, and I had the power and money and time to do the right thing, and there was no one at home that I had to worry about worrying if I was going to make it back or not, because you weren't here. You weren't here, Stephen, and then, Peter."

"Nope."

Tony crossed his arms and glared up at him. 

"Don't bring him into this, Tony."

"You -"

"I wanted to give you a family. Our family. When you were - when I didn't know if you were alive or dead, I had wished I had something, of ours, of you - but all I had was the work, and it, the work saved me, Tony. That's why - when I couldn't, I knew the minute I saw my hands when I woke up, I knew I would never work again. I tried to stay, honestly, I should've left long before I did, it would have saved -."

"Saved?"

"You some pain."

Tony swore and stalked angrily toward Stephen and stopped in front of him. "For a genius, you are a complete and utter moron sometimes. I never wanted you to leave. I didn't care if I had to spend the rest of my life doing everything for you, I wanted to be your hands, Stephen, I wanted to believe. Hell. I wanted to believe that I was enough for you to stay. I knew, you know, eventually, I figured out where you were, where you had to be, but I left you alone. I could have - once I knew how - once I could fly - yeah, I fly in these things - I figured it out, took me longer than it would have if my head had been screwed on properly, but I did it, Stephen. I could have - but you, you chose not to come home, and I had to live with that choice."

"I didn't leave because of you, it was nothing you said or did. It was me."

Tony crossed his arms and glared at him. "No. I know. If you had thought about me for one minute -"

"What do you think I've done for the past two years?"

"I don't -"

"All I thought about was how to get whole enough for you. For us. I wanted to be -"

"Damn it, Stephen."

"There wasn't a single day when I didn't want to call you, or send you an email, or come home to you, but I -"

"Stephen -" Tony moved closer until he could lean his head against Stephen's chest, and wrap his arms around him. "If you ask me to, I will give this all up. I swear, just say the word and they are gone."

Stephen shook his head, and kissed Tony's hair. "Now who is being a complete and utter moron?"

Then, as if on cue, they both froze as they heard Peter greet the morning with a howl, and Tony sighed as he placed his hands on Stephen’s face and drew him into a gently passionate kiss, then turned and flew up the stairs.

Stephen turned to look at the row of armor and whispered, “just keep him safe, bring him home to me,” and realized it didn’t feel the least bit odd, especially when Jarvis responded:

“We do our very best, Dr. Strange.”

“I know, Jarvis, I know.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last bit... I think.

Stephen walked into the sitting room and stopped short as he saw Tony give Peter his first bottle of the day. Tony looked up and rolled his eyes, but said nothing as Stephen slowly made his way to the couch and sat down next to him.

"I should have told you."

"You should have told me a lot of things," Tony whispered as he put the bottle down and held Peter to his shoulder and rubbed his back gently until he let out a sigh then fell asleep. "The thing is, this little person, is the best thing to happen to me since the day I met you. He gave me a reason to stop, and breathe, and think about something besides myself, because all he had was me." He got to his feet and met Stephen's eyes, then carried Peter to his nursery. Stephen, unsure of what to do with himself, followed and watched with what he could only define as awe as he saw Tony's effortless gentle touch with their son as he leaned over the crib and kissed the top of his head. Tony glanced up and spotted him at the doorway and shrugged, then silently left the room.

Stephen followed him to the picture window and laid a hand on his back. "There is no reason for you trust me -"

"Just stop talking," Tony whispered as he leaned back into Stephen's hand. "I just need to know if you love me, us, enough. If you want to be with me and Peter enough to stay, and be in our lives, or if you are going to disappear back through that -"

"It's a portal."

"Great. Portal. Whatever, if things get hard, are you just going to leave again, because I'm still me, and I'm sure I will do stupid things, probably at the same rate I did before, if not at a greater one -"

"Do you want me to stay?" Stephen interrupted him, then pressed a hesitant kiss to Tony's shoulder.

"Of course I do."

"You said that very quickly."

"I had something prepared should you ever come home, practiced it at Jarvis ad nauseum, I'm sure if he could get bored, he would have been bored ten minutes in. I told myself that if you ever came home, and wanted to stay, my answer would always be yes without question."

"And now?" Stephen asked quietly.

"The answer will be always, and forever, yes."

"Why?"

Tony turned and placed his hands on Stephen's face and shook his head. "Why. Why? Because you are the only person I will ever love, besides the kid I just put in his crib. You are the only person I allowed close enough to break my heart, and you are the only one who healed it just by coming home. Because you - you, Doctor Stephen Strange, are my heart, and the day the you left me, you took the best part of me with you. I don't know if you really ever understood that, even when you put this ring on my finger, the ring that has never left my hand since the day we married. Maybe that makes me weak, I don't know. All I know is that I really began to breathe again, when you held me in your arms the night you walked back into my life. If I am enough, if we are enough, for you, Stephen, I want you to stay. If we aren't, tell me now, before I start to get used to you being home, and before that little guy in the crib begins to believe you are real and not just a figment of his father's rather creative imagination."

Stephen nodded and kissed Tony's forehead, then closed his eyes as Tony leaned against him and held him in his arms. "I want to stay, Tony. I swear, I'll never leave you again."


End file.
